Lord Jimbob
Lord of the flies
i see what you're saying, rychan, about a computer player playing smarter at more challenging levels of computer chess; however, i'll venture to say that our beloved civIII is vastly more sophisticated in terms of the algorithm a computer would need to follow to match a good human player. in chess, the computer has a single aim: to checkmate the human player. but in civ a player must adapt his or her victory strategy to many play variables shifting from turn to turn. chessplay is also perfect in that the attacker always wins: pawn takes pawn, knight takes rook, whatever. in civ probability comes into play: an MA will probably take out an antediluvian archer, but... maybe not. could the developers make a more sophisticated computer opponent?- absolutely. but i think the quote you posted was particularly apt to our discussion: it's easier to just give the inferior player (the computer) more pieces (settlers, pikeman, discounts, etc.) to start with, because we humans are much better at evaluating complex scenarios and distilling the wisest course of action for our economy, research, and armies, etc...
